Redmond to get new brewery
| Wild Ride Brewing to open in old Parr Lumber building downtown

Redmond to get new brewery

By Rachael Rees
The Bulletin
Published Dec 5, 2013 at 12:01AM

REDMOND — A new production brewery and tasting room called Wild Ride Brewing is under construction downtown.

And Redmond officials predict the project will spur continued growth in the heart of the city.

“It was a natural thing for us to want to be in Redmond, because this is where we’re from, this is where our hearts are and this is where we live,” said Scott Satterlee, one of four partners in Wild Ride Brewing.

The idea for the brewery started about two years ago, when three of the partners, who had been childhood friends, decided to start a business venture together. In April, the Redmond-based ownership group leased the 8,700-square-foot former Parr Lumber warehouse building at Deschutes Avenue and Fifth Street. It had been vacant for about four years. And over the last nine months the transformation has been underway.

Wild Ride Brewing will be a huge benefit to the city, Heather Richards, Redmond’s community development director, wrote in an email.

“First and foremost, they are a new business that will be employing Central Oregon residents,” Richards wrote. “However, they are also committing to a location on Fifth Street in our downtown core that is in need of new investment and momentum, and this type of enterprise is the perfect fit for that area.”

Jon Stark, manager for Redmond Economic Development Inc., agreed.

“Redmond’s downtown character continues to develop, and this new brewery will play an important role in the development of that character,” he said.

He also said Redmond is riding on the heels of Bend’s bustling brewery scene.

“This is not the first, second or even the third brewery in Redmond; it’s the sixth,” Stark said. “I think this is an example of continued momentum in the brewing industry that is now translating into Redmond.”

The group expects to spend more than $300,000 in building improvements and at least another $200,000 in brewery equipment, said partners Brian Mitchell and Paul Bergeman.

Applications have been filed with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The group hopes the brewery will be operating by spring and is aiming to produce about 1,500 barrels in the first year, with both bottle and can production in the future.

The model for Wild Ride is not a brewpub but a tasting room and production facility, said Bergeman, who is also Wild Ride’s brewer. Bergeman previously worked for Portland-based Laurelwood Brewing Co. and Kona Brewing Co. in Hawaii, he said.

“My expertise is not in making food; it’s making beer,” Bergeman said. “There’s a lot of great chefs and great people around us that can supply food for us. We really want people to come to our brewery and experience what we’re doing with our beer.”

Glass rollup garage doors will allow passers-by and patrons in the tasting room to sip their beer while watching it being made a few feet away.

“You’ll really be able to see what’s happening in the brewery and the brewing process,” he said. “We want people to feel like they are part of it.”